Hundreds of secondary and primary schoolchildren from dozens of London schools were given the chance to learn vital business and presentation skills as part of the City Pitch programme by Mayor’s Fund for London and BE OPEN. Within the programme, three City Pitch Days and a dedicated Children’s festival were held at City Hall and attended by hundreds of pupils from across London.
By tasking children with conceiving and developing a community business idea and then pitching it to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel in a bid for essential funding, City Pitch aims to encourage and help young Londoners step up as leaders, learn new skills and make a real difference in their communities.
18 schools made it to one of three final pitch processes at City Hall, with ideas ranging from events to help people to stop smoking to healthy eating campaigns, social events to help elderly people make new friends and traffic calming ideas to prevent accidents. In developing their ideas, the children were given mentoring and advice both on how to plan and build on their ideas and then how to present them to a panel of experts.
All projects presented tangible ideas to improve communities and make London an even better place to live for the next generation. Every school was awarded £1,500 to develop and get their ideas off the ground, along with sound advice from the panel.
The City Pitch programme also incorporated a leadership module involving even more London students, designed to help them prepare to be leaders in their communities and once they leave school. The entire programme offered young people the chance to develop important leadership, teamwork, planning and presentational skills. Professional mentors went into schools during every stage of the programme to help the children prepare and hone their proposals and pitches.
